other magazines are disconcerting, wait until you see them looming more than four feet high on the wall like Big Brother (and Sister) posters. Schoeller zooms in so near to Angelina Jolie, Val- entino, Pelé, Donald Rumsfeld, and Jack Nichol- son that the viewer has to back off just to get some perspective on the odd terrain. The faces that appear impervious to this sort of scrutiny (including Bill Clinton's and Brad Pitt's) are, in the end, no less alarming than those that have clearly weathered some storms. It's interesting to see Cindy Sherman in this company-the master of disguises looks just as inscrutable without one. Through Sept. 1. (Hasted Hunt, 529 W. 20th St. 212-627-0006.) RICHARD SERRA Serra's recent efforts are considerably more earth- bound than the spirals and arcs that soared through previous decades and into public con- troversy. Weight, rather than lightness, is his pro- fessed interest here. One sculpture, called "Round," is a big, eye-level plug of steel. Other works turn slabs of oxidizing metal on their sides to create simple compositions-in one case, lining the walls like wainscotting. "Equal Weights and Measures" arranges six boxes to create, when one steps back, a three-dimensional line graph. Even the titles ape the faux-scientific rigidity and precision of sixties minimalism-a shame, since these are the orthodoxies Serra originally set out to de- stroy. Here he re-creates Donald Judd (though with a rust patina) rather than forging past him. Through Sept. 23. (Gagosian, 555 W. 24th St. 212-741-1111.) II ART VS. REAL LIFE: CANADIAN STORIES II In contrast with the art coming out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, the unlikely hotbed of Canadiana that produced Royal Art Lodge and Marcel Dzama, or Vancouver's long reign in conceptual photog- raphy, the "stories" here don't differ much from American ones. Young painters trawl the bound- aries of neo-symbolism, neo-expressionism, and naïve art. Canadian precedents can be seen in Carlos and Jason Sanchez's photograph of an af- fectless youngster in his bedroom, which conj ures Jeff Wall, and Seth Scriver's airbrushed paintings of ghosts (or some sort of creepy, ethereal crea- tures) nod to Dzama. Over all, however, one must puzzle at the curator Katharine Mulherin's state- ment that this is her "dream show" lineup; surely there is more talent among the younger generation of Canadians than what's on view here. Through Sept. 9. (Morgan Lehman, 317 Tenth Ave. 212- 268-6699.) IIGALERIE DANIEL BUCHHOLZ AT METRO PICTURES II Metro Pictures adopts a new strategy for tackling the obligatory summer group show: invite a friendly European gallery to act as foreign-exchange stu- dent. Buchholz is the German representative of several artists in Metro's stable, including T. J. Wilcox, Lucy McKenzie, and Jack Goldstein, whose work here will be familiar to New York- ers. But he also brings solid work by Germans and Austrians like Florian Pumhösl, Henning Bohl,Jochen Klein, and Lukas Duwenhögger. Buch- holz's gallery is located behind an antiquarian book- store in Cologne; various antique-y texts and il- lustrative images serve as a reminder of home, and his cataloguing sensibilities bring an Old World flavor to Metro's Hollywood- and Madi- son Avenue-inflected conceptual roots. Through Sept. 16. (Metro Pictures, 519 W. 24th St. 212- 206-7100.) IISIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION 2: THE INNER WORKINGS OF COLD CONTACT II It's not life that art imitates anymore, but Hol- lywood, where sequels and titles pregnant with faux-philosophical gravitas reign. "Cold Con- tact" (enter Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, or another chastened action star) refers here to solitude, re- flection, and "the decay of cultural memory." Some of these works actually fit that bill rather well, like Scott Hug's paintings of tabloid-hounded celebrities, Mathilde ter Heijne's chilling video about female suicide bombers, or Xenobia Bai- ley's crocheted "Sistah Paradise" tent, conceived as a relic from the ministry of an African spiri- CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK MAN, OH, MANSFIELD From Daffy Duck to Jayne Mansfield: is that a minor adjustment, a Darwinian test case, or simply a logical step? In any event, it worked ," I I " G) ...._ ..::io'" ) '- / , IJ IV\. ' ---= . '1, - (, ( ",- for Frank Tashlin, who graduated from Warner Bros. cartoons to the matching elasticity of Ms. Mansfield. Their brightest hour and a half together was probably 'Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?," made in 1957, and now featured in a short T ashlin season at Film Forum. The film stars Tony Randall as a spineless advertising copywriter who saves his job, and risks his fiancée (Betsy Drake), by signing Rita Marlowe (Mansfield spoofing her own image as a Hollywood man-cruncher) to front a lipstick campaign. Cue a majestic parade of dumbed- up dialogue: "She was a . "" Id ' h tsarIna. on t care w at was wrong with her." The plot curdles toward the end, but the verve of the gags and the surprising bite of the satire (check out Randall's gesture to the TV audience midway through) leave the movie as fresh as Stay-Put, the gloss on Rità slips. "Color by De Luxe," the credits announce, and you can feel it in every hair of her hand-dyed poodle. -Anthony Lane tual adviser enslaved in America. Others, like Manabu Yamanaka's photographs of children with deformities and Kosyo's human skulls made from resin, pander more to those blockbuster impulses: they're full of shock and flash, but lean on substance. Through Sept. 9. (Stux, 530 W. 25th St. 212-352-1600.) III WILL NOT MAKE ANY MORE BORING ART: LITHOGRAPHS. PUBLICATIONS. AND EPHEMERA FROM THE NOVA SCOTIA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN II The roster of artists who made prints or whose writings were published by this university press in the late sixties and early seventies is impres- sive: Vito Acconci, Dan Graham, John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, Douglas Huebler, Hans Haacke, Yvonne Rainer, Lawrence Weiner, Sol Le Witt. It's a particularly impressive feat, since the program coaxed conceptualists-artists leading the anti- object revolution-into the print studio to create lasting documents. Some of the lithographs echo iconic works, like Acconci's self-biting "Trade- marks" performance, Graham's suburban "Homes for America" magazine spread, or the Baldessari edict that supplies the show's title. Among the art and ephemera, however, are a few surprises: let- ters and memos and books one hopes the press will rerelease, as was recently the case with Donald Judd's complete writings from 1959 to 1975. Through Sept. 23. (Printed Matter, Inc., 195 Tenth Ave. 212- 925-0325.) Short List IISOUTINE AND MODERN ART II : Cheim & Read, 547 W. 25th St. 212-242-7727. Through Sept. 8. GALLERIES-DOWNTOWN ALEXANDER CALDER There are six works by the perennial crowd- pleaser Calder on view in the Public Art Fund's current installation: five freestanding painted-steel sculptures in City Hall Park and, inside the hall itself, a mobile made of ovoid disks in black steel. With summer plantings at their height and the fountain bubbling, the outdoor pieces-which date from the late fifties through the late seven- ties-look like charmingly abstracted zoo ani- mals amid the greenery. But the mobile is the pièce de résistance, striking just the right outré note in the graceful Federal-style rotunda. N or- mally, only organized tours are allowed into the building, but a nice police officer may let you take a peek. Through March 18,2007. (City Hall Park. For further information, see www.public- artfund.org. ) IIMARIL YN II Like the pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, and Niag- ara Falls, Marilyn Monroe was one of those marvels every photographer wanted to snap. Even before she made a movie, Monroe's love affair with the camera had turned her into a pop icon, and she was rarely out of some pho- tographer's sight. Cecil Beaton, Elliott Erwitt, Eve Arnold, Andre De Dienes, and Philippe Hals- man, all included here, were among the lucky ones who captured her, but plenty of others took a shot at the legend, and she vamped them all. Shooting from Samuel Goldwyn's upper- story window, Phil Stern catches Monroe strid- ing across a movie lot, alone and unaware but smiling like she hasn't a care in the world. Through Sept. 1. (Staley-Wise, 560 Broadway. 212-966-6223.) GALLERIES-BROOKLYN z <( liMA TERIAL WORLD II LU Five artists offer varied commentary on the urban 8:: landscape, with sculpture burrowed into bus- Q tling public spaces in downtown Brooklyn. Corin Hewitt's "Legacy" is a rainbow made from street- Õ sweeping detritus-dirt, candy wrappers, and